Horace Greeley’s advice to “Go West,” might be replaced today by the recommendation to “Go Commercial.” That’s the course of action at the Tribune Publishing Company (TPC), in Lewiston, Idaho, publisher of the Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
TPC broke ground this month for a 30,000 sq ft production facility that will be home to a three-page-wide MAN Roland UNISET 75. The new press will add more firepower to TPC’s two-shift-a-day commercial operations and bring full color to 25,000 Tribune and 8,000 Daily News readers.
The MAN Roland press will replace a 1979 Urbanite machine with very limited color capacity, when it goes on edition in June 2008. The existing press can deliver full color on only 8 of the 32 pages it prints, while the UNISET can produce a total of 48 pages, all in four color, in the collect three-wide mode.
“The demand for color continues to increase,” says Wayne Hollingshead, General Manager of the Tribune and the Daily News. “We believe reader and advertiser reception will be positive to the expanded color and print quality the UNISET will provide.”
But it is the commercial capabilities of the MAN Roland press that are creating the most pre-installation buzz at Tribune Publishing Company. “Commercial printing offers the most potential for growth,” Hollingshead observes. “We can't compete for the extended run jobs, because we’re printing newspapers every day, but we will now have the capability to print high quality specialty magazines.”
TPC’s UNISET will supply that capability with 32 printing couples, configured in four towers and fed by four reel tension pasters. With a 21-inch cutoff, the press can print three 12” x 21” broadsheet pages across the cylinder in the three-wide mode. That results in 6 pages per web in the straight mode and 12 pages per web in the collect mode.
The arrangement saves TPC money. “The three wide in combination with angle bars provides 50% more broadsheet pages and additional color capacity without the expense of adding another tower,” Hollingshead explains.
The UNISET can quickly convert to two-wide, variable width production. The press’ ability to rapidly switch between the three-wide fixed and the two-wide variable modes will come in handy at TPC, since its commercial work calls for a variety of page widths.
TCP is looking to further broaden the range and amount of work it does for its commercial customers by equipping its new press with two MAN Roland folders. “We are purchasing a half folder for newspaper work and a quarter folder for some commercial work,” Hollingshead notes. “And we are designing our press to accommodate another half folder at some future date. This additional folder would allow us to run two commercial jobs concurrently.”
A marketing plan is already in the works to generate new business for the UNISET, which is scheduled to arrive next January. Meanwhile, construction has begun on TPC’s new production center, which is scheduled for completion by October 1. “The building will be 30,000 sq ft and will house prepress, plate making, IT, and our distribution center,” Hollingshead says. “We chose local architects Don Bott and Associates, and Kenaston Corporation as our general contractor.”
Tribune Publishing Company chose MAN Roland as its press provider for more reasons than the advanced technology UNISET delivers, according to Hollingshead. “We were impressed with the emphasis and importance MAN Roland places on training and project management. This was a large factor in our decision to invest in the UNISET.”
The selection process included trips to Jefferson City, Missouri, where the News Tribune Company was activating a new UNISET 75 as TPC pondered its pressroom options. “We were able to see the benefit of good training and planning there,” Hollingshead recalls. “We saw the true potential of the new technology and improved work flow that the new system provides.”
Participating in the evaluation tour was Junior Stockwell, Press Foreman for the Lewiston Tribune. "The best salesmen are the employees who work on the press,” he says. “At the MAN Roland sites I visited, all the pressmen were proud, dedicated people who were happy working with MAN Roland and the UNISET press. That's what sold me."
MAN Roland’s Keith Kandrashoff coordinated the trip. “The professionals in Jefferson City display a great work ethic that helped Lewiston see the real potential of the UNISET 75 machine,” he says. “Additionally, the fact that both the News Tribune Company and TPC are family owned and share similar cultures helped the Tribune Publishing Company relate to the potential of what UNISET could do for their operation.”
Ron Sams, Vice President of Newspaper Sales for MAN Roland Inc., sees TPC’s growing commercial business as more evidence of an industry trend that has presses printing profitably long after the last edition has hit the streets.
“As the worldwide leader in both newspaper and web press technology, MAN Roland is uniquely positioned to help newspapers expand their commercial printing operations, both in terms of versatility and profitability,” he says. “We are proud that the Tribune Publishing Company has put its trust in us to help grow their business. They will find that they have chosen a strong and supportive partner.”